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The 37th São Paulo International Film Festival

Two years after the death of its founder, the film critic Leon Cakoff – who managed to create it during Brazil’s censor-prone dictatorship – São Paulo’s annual Mostra film festival is always worth a look, showcasing an eclectic selection of movies, from winners and participants from other famed festivals to independent releases from off the beaten track.

This year’s show boasts a strong programme including works by directors such as Jean-Luc Godard and Peter Greenaway (3x3D), Hirokazu Koreeda (Like Father, Like Son), Bille August (Night Train to Lisbon) and Jafar Panahi (Pardé), as well as up-and-coming filmmakers like Marjane Satrapi (La Bande des Jotas), Anthony Chen, winner of this year’s Golden Camera at Cannes (Ilo Ilo), Diego Quemada-Diez (La Jaula de Oro) and Diederick Ebbinge (Matterhorn).

A homage to Stanley Kubrick

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Sue Lyon as the underage lead of Kubrick’s adaptation of ‘Lolita’

The big honouree this year is none other than Stanley Kubrick, one of the most influential directors of all time. In addition to screenings of true modern classics such as Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Lolita and The Shining, an exhibition at MIS will illustrate his impressive career.

Curated by Hans-Peter Reichmann of the Deutsches Film Museum of Frankfurt, and with the collaboration of Christiane Kubrick, the filmmaker’s widow, the MIS show features costumes, props, documents and original photos from Kubrick’s films.

Coinciding with the museum exhibition, the publisher Cosac Naify also releases Conversations with Kubrick, in which the French critic Michel Ciment reviews the director’s work, combining analysis with interviews and texts from the American filmmaker. The book also includes a preface from another preeminent director, Martin Scorsese.

Other retrospectives and special screenings

Another tribute is planned for the Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz, known for addressing the current political and social issues in his country. Diaz has already garnered praise at other international festivals, having won the 2007 Golden Lion Special Mention at the Venice Film Festival for Death in the Land of Encantos, while his latest film, Norte, the End of History, was an official selection at this year’s edition of Cannes.

Among the special screenings at this year’s festival are a restored copy of Nathan der Weise (Nathan the Wise), a classic German silent film from 1922, directed by Manfred Noa. The rarely seen film, which will be projected outdoors, at the Auditório of the Ibirapuera, went missing in 1930, until a copy was finally discovered in Moscow in 1996. Origially banned upon its release by the censorship committee of the pre-Nazi German government, Nathan der Weise will be accompanied by music specially written for the film by Lebanese composer Rabih Abou-Khalil, and performed by the Petrobras Symphony Orchestra, conducted by maestro Armando Prazeres.

Another highlight, on what would have been Yasujiro Ozu’s 110th birthday, are three films by the great master of Gendai-Geki – Japanese family dramas: Tokyo Monogatari (Tales of Tokyo, 1953), Higanbana (Equinox Flower,1958), and Sanma No Aji (Routine Has Its Charm, 1962), his final work.

The full programme, with venue details and times, will be published at 37.mostra.org.